Vandalism Of Statues “Extremely Unfortunate”: Amit Shah Condemns

New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah termed the desecration of communist icon Lenin’s statues in Tripura and Periyar’s statue in Tamil Nadu “extremely unfortunate” and asserted that any party member found involved in destroying a statue will face severe action.

Amit Shah’s warning to party workers came shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his strong disapproval over the vandalism.

In a series of tweets, Shah distanced the BJP from the vandalism after a few party leaders appeared to be endorsing the attacks on the statues and said his organisation believes a wide range of ideas and ideologies can co-exist in India.

“The recent issue on destroying of statues is extremely unfortunate. We as a party do not support the bringing down of anybody’s statue. I have spoken to the party units in both Tamil Nadu and Tripura. Any person associated with the BJP found to be involved with destroying any statue will face severe action from the party,” he said.

Their main aim is to bring a transformative change in the lives of the people, he said, adding that they are humbled by the fact that their ethos and work have endeared them to people all across India and the BJP-led NDA is running government in over 20 states.

The Left blamed the BJP for the incidents and some BJP leaders shared the post with comments that appeared to be justifying it. BJP national secretary H Raja later in a Facebook post said the statues Dravidian movement icon E V R Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, will be the next target. He later deleted the post and offered his regret but not before it had ignited a major controversy in Tamil Nadu.